


Stairway to heaven (EN)

by KittyHawk1903



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Other, Post-Canon, Romance, Songfic, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 19:15:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21202691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyHawk1903/pseuds/KittyHawk1903
Summary: How do you get to Alpha Centauri? And what guided Robert Plant's hand when he was writing lyrics to the eternal hit?Writober 2019, day 19 - A story about a hidden stairway.





	Stairway to heaven (EN)

**Author's Note:**

> I've worked a lot with different translations, but still I've almost no experience in translating fiction into English.  
So I'll be really glad if any native English speaker would take a look and tell me something in comments (or at least, would tell me something like "pls burn it down, your English is way too awful"))).

Noone knew which in a line was this evening after Armageddon't. Day was just a perfect one, and now they were sitting in the Crowley's classy, gloomy living room and were drinking wine as usual.

"By the way!", suddenly and totally not by the way Aziraphale said, interrupting his own long thought. "I wanted to ask you..."

He hesitated for some reason, and Crowley stared questioningly at him over his sunglasses, which have slid onto the tip of his nose. Of course, the demon wasn't blinking. And he also swayed slightly, barely noticeable, from side to side, as decent serpent should do in a relatively vertical position.

"Then... about Alpha Centauri," Aziraphale finally said, frowning as he still felt guilty for refusing Crowley so abruptly then. No reaction to his words followed, Crowley still was staring at him silently, waiting for the question, and the angel, after a short sigh, continued: "Were you... going to drive there?"

He really had no more ideas - Crowley was too insistent in trying to get him into the Bentley.

The serpent made a kind of thick sound, flashed his glance from side to side, frowned slightly - in general, all as usual when he couldn't immediately answer a question. Aziraphale knew all these reactions by heart.

"There's a shorter way", Crowley admitted somewhat unwillingly. For unknown reasons, he didn't feel good about telling it, but he could never say why. And he added, "From here".

"From here?", Aziraphale followed up encouragingly, thinking that sometimes he has to literally pry out words from usually speechful demon.

Crowley nodded silently and whipped off a full glass of wine, opening his jaws wider than human could do. And then he decisively stood up and propped his sunglasses.

"Come on, I'll show you", he again was looking self-assured and careless. "You'd definitely like it".

It was impossible to decline such an invitation. Aziraphale put his unfinished glass of wine onto the table, tidied his jacket and propped his bow-tie as usual, and hurried after the demon.

They left the flat and got to the upper floor by lift, then went through miraculously unsecured door to the rooftop. The panorama from here was wonderful - the city was in full view - but angel didn't have time to feast his eyes upon it. Crowley stopped at some small overstorey and put his hand onto massive rusty lock. It seemed weird that a rooftop of such expensive and new house has a dowdy overstorey like this.

"I remember how in seventieth I spent some time in Wales", Crowley said. "There was a couple of guys resting next door... you don't know them probably", he chuckled, glancing over Aziraphale. "One wrote cool accords, and second one just couldn't make any lyrics to it. I was in a perfect mood that time...", he creased as he always did when he had to confess in some good enough deed. "So, basically, one of the guys got, let's say, some sudden inspiration. And he came up to a really cool idea."

Under his hand the lock unlocked with a quiet sound, and Crowley opened the door. He walked into the dark corridor first and snapped his fingers, making a small will-o'-the-wisp float in the air above him.

It wasn't a long way. Just a couple of turns, and suddenly a wide stone stairway showed upon them, steeply leading somewhere up. It was lit - the light was faint and cold, and it was coming from the top.

"So the song worked out gorgeous. There were even some gossips that it like has some Satanic message concealed in it", Crowley gave a sarcastic sniff, stopping at the stairs. "Bullshit. Rob never was so deep in thought, he was just writing whatever he was writing... And so I wasn't deep in thought about escaping from the Apocalypse when I made this place".

They walked up in silence. Aziraphale tried to watch his steps - partly because the stairs were steep and in some places too smooth, partly because he didn't want to ruin the surprise for himself. It wasn't clear where Crowley's watching because of his sunglasses, but he seemed strangely thoughtful and even somehow sacramental.

Light became much brighter, and suddenly the stairway ended in a wide marble court without any balustrade. Crowley went to the edge of it and sat down with his legs hanging in the air, finally taking his sunglasses off. And Aziraphale stood still in amazement, staring ahead.

Stars were so clearly visible. Incredibly far but also incredibly close - it felt like just one step could lead to any of them. The space mesmerized, nebulae whirls and black hole blots seemed much more beautiful than any artist's canvas.

"It's mind-blowing here", Aziraphale said heartily, and Crowley chuckled in answer.

"Rob was wrong about one thing", he said broodingly. "Stairway never led to Heaven. I don't know if it's for better or not."

Aziraphale sat next to him, carefully making himself comfortable for not dropping the black sunglasses lying between them.

\- Obviously for better, my dear.

And for the first time this evening, Crowley gave an absolutely ingenuous smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I would be really thankful for any feedback.


End file.
